There’s been much ink/bytes spilled about the right way to write a post or the best way to write a blog entry. Usually the fretting is from bloggers that are just getting started and are scared of screwing it up.
When you first start blogging, simply write.
Show up at the entry form and type something funny, something profound, something nagging you or something you found.
I’ve been thinking about my own blog taxonomy lately and am leaning towards four main categories:
1) News, alerts, updates and upgrades
Every topic has announcements and new releases that might age quickly but can still be a part of a blog’s overall coverage. The posts might be out of date but if you are following a certain industry it might be important to keep currecny. Sometimes I think it is pointless to try and keep up – I’ll login to my Google Reader and see hundreds of updates and alerts and simply click Mark All Read. This kind of coverage might not be approriate for more relaxed audiences.
2) How-to’s, tutorials, techniques
The so-called ‘evergreen’ content that will age well and still apply years from now. For tech-based topics evergreen might mean 1-2 years. This is where you can really shine in providing useful content that can live on long past it’s intial delivery. This is where you’ll have what I’ve heard called your ‘flagship content’ or ‘pillar content’ – the main posts/essays that express your position and platform in the marketplace.
3) Resources and links
Often I’m pointing to a resource or tool or book I found online. It isn’t necessarily a tutorial on how to do something and it isn’t exactly evergreen because it’ll be useful longer than that. These might be better posted in a Del.icio.us account or your blog’s sidebar.
4) Thoughtful/essays
Not sure the best name for this yet. Often, I find myself doing more ‘thoughtful’ pieces on trends or macro-views of the world around me and how it relates to my business or life. This might be the traditional journal-ish or diary-esque pedigree of a blog. For those blogging as ‘thought leaders’ you’ll spend lots of time here.
Possible 5) Offtopic
A blog that never goes offtopic is a bit inhuman I think. This is where you can post jokes, Flash demos, other stuff that isn’t directly connected to your topic but is entertaining or a diversion that shows a bit more warmth a boring normal website.
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